With Buzzards Bay at their back door, Tabor Academy students and staff have a strong connection to the sea. A fresh partnership with the Buzzards Bay Coalition is deepening that relationship.

Since June, students in the school’s marine science program and those aboard the “SSV Tabor Boy” have become Baywatchers – a program designed to give volunteers an opportunity to help with the Coalition’s research. Baywatchers provide data for 30 locations in Buzzards Bay and its watershed.

“Because we share Buzzards Bay with a lot of other people, we wanted to contribute back and also give our students some really relevant work to do in partnership with what the Buzzards Bay Coalition has already done,” said Capt. David Bill, chair of the nautical science department.

This summer students began testing the water to gather data that will measure the health of the bay.

“They rate various areas on how healthy the area is for the environment and the organisms that live in it,” said Bill.

The Coalition's Bay Health Index includes an evaluation of the water's nitrogen content and clarity that will be used in environmental hearings and property development, among other applications, said Bill.

In addition to water samples, students aboard “Tabor Boy” will collect samples of rusty tide, a toxic red algae that has been linked to fish deaths.

“We’re trying to compliment the work they’re doing but also be one of their watchdogs,” said Bill. “We’re contributing to the local ocean ecology.”

This latest opportunity is in addition to other work the school has done to help the harbor. In 2013, the marine science program started an oyster farm in collaboration with the town of Marion. The oysters will eventually be released into Sippican Harbor.

“We want [the students] to learn the relevance and importance of collecting scientific data and how valuable it is to the community that we would know what is happening literally in our backyard,” said Bill. “It literally brings the water into the classroom or vice versa.”

The Buzzards Bay Coalition will assess the data collected this summer by Tabor and other Baywatchers over the coming months, and Bill said students will continue to take samples in the fall and spring semesters.

“We hope to continue serving the community. We’re open to being good partners,” Bill said.